A Perilous Path by Sherrilyn Ifill Loretta Lynch Bryan Stevenson & Anthony C. Thompson

Author:Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson & Anthony C. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620973967
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2018-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Loretta Lynch: As we bemoan the loss of the last eight years, though, we can’t forget the gains and lessons that came out of them. Because a lot of what we’re talking about got started during those years. And it can be continued; it can be carried on. It was very deliberately placed in communities, to break down the silos and try to bring people together. On the issue of policing, it was community policing. It was engaging with officers who will say to you, on any given day, “I am more of a social worker than a cop, and that’s my job.” And they actually love that part of the job. Trying to raise those officers up, as opposed to the ones who themselves have been traumatized and take it out on other people. Recognizing the trauma in law enforcement also is something that has to continue.

I think we also have to think about and focus on continuing the empowerment of local communities, and their voices, in these issues. Local communities are still responsive. People have to demand better. They do. They have to ask for better; they have to demand better. They have to say, “We deserve a school board that looks like us,” and elect it. They have to say, “We deserve a police department that knows our kids and understands who they are, and works with us.” They have to demand it, and they have to go to City Hall and get it. And that kind of local empowerment I think is what we have to focus on. Frankly I think it’s a continual thing, now more than ever.

But those lessons are there. And so I think we can look at the work that we did at the Justice Department, and you’re right, these are likely not going to be the pattern-and-practice cases that we saw over the last eight years. But the lessons learned from those cases are tremendous. Communities now realize, “I have a say in how police get trained. I have a voice, I can use that voice.” That is a constant drumbeat. Because it’s not just that black and brown kids are told that you’re dangerous and marginalized. They’re also told, “You’re stupid.” It doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t matter if you make it to the gifted or talented. It doesn’t matter if you make it to Harvard. They are told, “You are intellectually less than the person sitting next to you.” We have to counter that narrative within every child from day one.

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